URGENT!

WE NEED YOUR HELP ON TUESDAY AUG 7TH AT 8:30 A.M. AT THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING – TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST ITEM #24 – Amendment to Memorandum of Agreement with Lytton Rancheria.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, led by James Gore, are again working with the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to make their land outside of Windsor into a sovereign nation. This will allow uncontrolled development including a 200 room hotel, a 200,000 case winery, a waste water treatment plant next to the Deer Park subdivision and the cutting of 1500 blue oak trees. Over 70% of Windsor residents polled oppose this.

We need your help to stop them at their next meeting. That’s when they’ll try change to an earlier agreement (a Memorandum of Agreement or MOA) with the Lyttons. It’s a backroom deal with the Lyttons that the county is just now unveiling to the public.

On the surface the change sounds good. It says the Lyttons can’t build a casino in the county. And that’s how James Gore and others will sell it to the public. But what people don’t realize is this is just the last part of a deal to make the Windsor area land a sovereign nation.

Currently there’s a bill (HR 597) in the US Senate that would make the Lytton land a sovereign nation by a special act of congress. If it passes the Senate, it’ll likely become law. Senator Feinstein is the decisive vote.

Under pressure by Governor Brown, who has received millions of contribution dollars from the Lyttons for his causes, Feinstein has agreed to support the bill if it says there’ll be no gaming in Sonoma County by the Lyttons. But changing the bill requires it to go back to the House of Representatives for approval- something the Lyttons don’t want. It could get stuck and die there when the bill expires on December 31st.

So in back room deals, Supervisor James Gore and others on the board are trying to help the Lytton over this hurdle. The Lyttons and the Supervisors told Feinstein that they’ll instead modify their previous agreement to say no gaming.

But decades in the future, it’ll be hard to even find that agreement. Any ban on gaming needs to be in the actual bill, HR 597, for meaningful protection.

And if the supervisors modify the Lytton agreement, let’s properly overhaul it in the full light of day. Let’s give the public the necessary time to consider it so it really looks after the interest of Windsor area residents. Let’s change the agreement so this massive development moves to the Lytton’s Old Salvation Army land north of Healdsburg that has freeway access.

Or the county should dissolve the agreement. It only gives the Lytton’s an excuse to develop a huge area that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to develop. It’s time Supervisor Gore and others start representing their Windsor constituents instead of the Lyttons’ interests.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1) COME AND TELL THE SUPERVISORS THAT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING AND YOU DON’T SUPPORT THIS AMENDMENT. YOU CAN SPEAK DURING THE PUBLIC COMMENT TIME. YOU WILL HAVE 3 MINUTES TO MAKE YOUR POINT.

3) CONTACT SENATOR FEINSTEIN’S OFFICE AT 202 224 3841 (during weekdays between 8 a.m and 7 p.m. Eastern Time) AND TELL HER TO VOTE NO ON HR 597 THAT WOULD ALLOW THE LYTTONS TO MAKE THEIR LAND IN WINDSOR A SOVEREIGN NATION.